Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: After reading a particular press article, the complainant requested information relating to a number of social services cases that had been reviewed by Kent County Council (-�the council-�). The article referred to over 500 cases that caused concern. The council said that it did not hold the information. Following the Commissioner-�s intervention, the council conceded that it did hold the information however it would take more than 18 hours work to comply with the request and an exclusion relating to costs applied under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (-�the FOIA-�). Despite this, the council provided to the complainant part of the requested information that it was able to obtain by working up to and a little way beyond the costs limit. However, the complainant remained dissatisfied. The Commissioner-�s decision is that the council correctly determined that to comply with the request would exceed the costs limit under section 12 of the FOIA and that it had provided appropriate advice and assistance. The Commissioner also noted that there were a number of procedural issues that arose because of the way in which the authority handled the request. In particular, he noted that the council failed to respond to the request within the statutory time frame. It also failed to identify that it held information falling within the scope of the request. Once this had been identified, the council applied the costs limit exclusion under the FOIA but did not consider the associated obligations to offer reasonable advice and assistance until prompted to do so by the Commissioner. The Commissioner does not require any steps to be taken.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 12 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 16 - Complaint Not upheld